EU expects credible elections in Ghana – EU Ambassador

The European Union (EU) Ambassador to Ghana, Diana Acconica, has said the EU is expecting a free, fair and credible election in Ghana on December 7 this year.

She told Etornam Sey on TV3’s New Day Wednesday November 4 that “The European Union expects elections in Ghana to be free, fair, credible and most of all peaceful.

“The EU decided to deploy observers after the discussion with the government. The government was positive about the observers and the opposition was also positive about them.”

The EU team of election observes to Ghana have already met with government officials as well as the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, John Dramani Mahama.

During the engagement, Mr Mahama complained to them that the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) has failed to follow due process in the lead-up to the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections.

He also noted that the elections management has failed to follow legal process in the preparation towards the elections, a situation, he bemoans, raises concerns as to whether or not the EC will deliver credible polls this year.

He told the delegation that: “This election is critical for consolidating Ghana’s democracy and then also moving Ghana to the next level especially after a year of this very serious pandemic that Ghana is affected. We will like to thank you for your usual attention to Ghana.”

He added: “A lot of things have been happening especially in the lead-up to the elections. If you look at the continent because of Covid everybody is looking inward. In our country, we have a problem with the Electoral Commission.

“There have been incidents leading up to the elections that create a certain anxiety about whether the election is going to be transparent, free and fair and whether it is going to be devoid of any chaos or disorder. We want you to take note of it.

“The Commission has failed to follow due process. In some cases, legal provisions they have failed to follow it.

“In other cases, they introduced new things into the electoral process too late and too close to an election and we are beginning to suffer the results of that. Late registration of voters has led to late exhibition, omission of names, it gives us very little time to correct before we go into the election.”